Join me to Use Social Media on Twitter, Facebook, My Space and More

As a Los Angeles social media marketing consultant, it has been interesting to experiment around with all of the new social media marketing mediums -- the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web. I do SMM every day for our MarCom New Media clients, including ghostwriting blogs like this one on invoice factoring for Interface Financial, writing articles and syndicated them over the Internet, writing optimized releases and pitch letters, bookmarking content in DIGG and distributing content over RSS feeds. When I pitch the media via email I use pitch letters with embedded videos.

Social Media Marketing for B2B has gotten a bad rap. But I make sure we use podcasts embedded, plus images of their latest products and services. Once our social media press releases are posted on the Internet, via Marketwire, they quickly show up in Yahoo and Google News,l SMM requires every bit as much of a professional to manage, as marketing, PR or corporate communications has always required.

Today, only about 10 to 15 percent of marketers nationwide are doing SMM, according to guru Paul Gillin who wrote a book called The New Influencers. The purpose of SMM is to engage with enthusiasts and existing customers in interactive communities in order to drive more traffic and sales.

If you have not already, start experimenting with blogs, online video, podcasts, corporate communities and public networks. In fact, social networks were only beginning to gain traction in the spring of 2007. Memberships are in the hundreds of millions.

Getting on the first page of the Google listings takes a searc engine optimization (SEO) company like MarCom, who spends months getting our clients ranked on the top of the search engines. Check out our Los Angeles SEO Successes

Onsite Search Optimization Tips

Here are some tips for what NOT to do on your website if you want to attract customers. Never use Flash splash screens. Google and the search engines cannot read it, so Flash is not good for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) results. Embedded Flash is OK to use, but if your home page is a Flash splash screen with no text, the search engines simply won't see it.

As a Los Angeles search engine optimization consultants, we see everything, and mostly we see that website designers do more harm than good when they say they know how to SEO a website. Usually this is just not the case. Good SEO is also all about content... content... content. Make sure there is plenty of content on your website. Nice designs, photos and no content will not help your SEO results, period.

Meta, Title and Description tags are very important. You may have seen some websites where it says "new page" in the browser? That is because the website designer did not put a title tag on the page. A short message with a key word that describes your site in the Description tag is essential so your customers will click through to your site when potential customers see your site's listing.

Never use repeat Title and Description tags. Website pages should each be unique with a theme for key words or phrases for each page. Make your Title and Description tags match the content for one of the keywords per page. You can't optimize one single page for many different key words.

Do not use text as an image. Some sites have text and images combined into a jpg or gif image, so you can't select the text with your cursor. If a search engine can't find any searchable text, you will not get SEO results. Also don't make any headlines into gif images, because they should be text with a key word in it.

Local businesses don't need national SEO. A cigar store in Pasadena does not need to optimize for the national or global market. Customers must live nearby. MarCom had a client like this, so we optimized them for Pasadena Cigar stores. It worked. Now it would have been different if they had an online cigar store.

For those of you who need some more help with your search engine optimization visit our website at http://www.marcomnewmedia.com/

Find me on Twitter at MarCom4SMM - for Social Media Marketing

The Aberdeen Group recently published a report, “The ROI on Social Media Marketing,” which was sponsored by Visible Technologies. The report affirms that marketers have developed the methods and tools to drive return on investment (ROI) for companies via social media. It's just one more reason why I now have a Twitter account for MarCom - twitter me at MarCom4SMM.

This just affirms what Marcom New Media, a Los Angeles social media marketing firm, has been doing for the last five years, which entails listening to customers and influencing prospects. Actually, we keep telling clients that in order to compete online, flourish and be more profitable, there are three key steps:

Phase I - Online SEO
Phase II - Offline Link Building and Pay per Click (PPC)
Phase III- Social Media Marketing

The research report said 63 percent of the companies in their survey (defined as best-in-class) planned to increase their social media marketing budgets this year.

The truth is, social media networks started around the spring of 2007, and today, memberships in platforms like Facebook, or My Space, are in the hundreds of millions. We started doing tactics like forum posting back in the year 2000.

But there is something else know as social media optimization. This includes offsite optimization strategies with the intent of distributed content across multiple social media networks. Tools for this include adding links to services such as Digg, Del.icio.us or Readdit.

MarCom writes unique content (all articles must be 30 to 40 % unique or different than any other document on the Web) that's embedded with your key words and phrases, so when people search online, there’s a better chance of finding your content via the search engines.

We are also a Los Angeles Search Engine Marketing (SEM) firm, and helps clients audit and determine search marketing strategies for increased lead generation online. We use a many different social networking platforms for branding online.

A couple of the areas that have grown for us includes ghostwriting blogs for clients. We also shoot video shorts, edit them and syndicate them online in places like Google video or YouTube, and record and manage podcasts. We recently completed a number of online videos for our client The Wiley Protocol, which are also on YouTube, and syndicated around the Internet.

Website Search Engine Optimization Tips

We have been meeting with many new clients lately, and in doing so, realize that most of their websites are NOT properly optimized. This is in part because today's website designers and web master's have not yet caught up with SEO tactics, knowledge and practices.

MarCom's Mike Keesling, who has been doing SEO since the beginning, says the most important element of website optimization is NO SPLASH SCREENS AND NO FLASH! Next is if you are going to opt for an open source solution for a database driven site (such as Big media USA) make sure you can do individual title tags.

It is unfortunate because most companies would be realizing much improved traffic to their sites if they were optimized. These skills have taken our MarCom SEO experts years to develop and hone, so it's not likely that a company can do it alone - or if they do it will take longer than if they hire SEO specialist teams like MarCom.

The first tip is that you can never use Flash on your home page. It may look nice, but Flash blocks the search engines from reading a web page. Embedded Flash is OK. Remember the more content that has been optimized in your pages the better. Most designers hate this, because white space in design has long been preferred. But when it comes to website optimization, make the pages above the fold or middle pretty, then add more optimized content below the fold.

By optimized content we mean that it has your key words and phrases embedded in the copy. Take for example MarCom. Our key words are website optimization, search engine optimization, social media marketing, online marketing, SEO, social media marketing strategy and so forth. NOTE how I linked the main key word pertaining to this article to our website? I would typically link it to a page on our site with focus to website optimization. Once our new MarCom New Media website is up I will do that.

Linking in press releases and wire services

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I was submitting my client Peternity.com's press release, when I called tech support at the wire service that I use and was told that I could add my key words - and that I was allowed one key word per 100 words. The release was 800 words long, meaning I could add eight keywords. I did this but, to be honest, it really looked stupid. So I contacted my colleague, and social media marketing mentor Sally from Expansion Plus, who said that three links per article "work best." We changed the release.

We've been practicing social media marketing at MarCom Broadband for quite some time, and every day I learn something new. For article submissions, I have only been using three links per article. And the same rule applies for articles as for releases. It is best to link to a key word phrase in the first paragraph, and at the end -- because, as I have been told, the search engines read from the bottom up, and top down, and pick up words most used on the beginning and end of sentences.

One more issue. When in the article submission sites, they do not allow linking in the main text of your article. However they will allow a maximum of two URLs in what is known as the RESOURCE BOX. You are allowed to use HTML code to make the link work. If you don't link up your URL they will automatically assume that you only wanted it displayed, but not linked. Oh, and they also do not allow these links in the resource box to contain a downloaded file of any kind. Plus they won't accept articles that have the same link in the box more than one time.

And as always -- stick to white hat, not black hat SEO practices, or they may reject your articles.

2008 Trends in SEO and Social Media Business Models

Now that the new year is well under way, we have been getting questions from current and potentially new small to medium sized clients regarding business models and the online arena.

In fact, MarCom is also currently undergoing a new website development strategy for our own website MarCom Broadband. Although we liked the original design two years ago, we want a more corporate content driven site today, so we've decided that the black background needs to be switched out. Plus our website in need of upgrading to a more SEO and social media friendly design. We will be having our web designer add this blog, and make it easier to switch out content on the pages of the site. Websites with lots of dynamic changing content rich with your key words get the attenditon of the search engines, which will mean better rankings.

That brings me to the fact that I noticed a great article on Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion blog this week which talked about some of the new online business models. There is of course, "advertiser-supported advertising" in which some of the big brands are partnering with online media properties. Then there are"advertiser-subsidized devices, " where incentives play a big part. However, the model that fascinated me is is known as "just-in-time," which is digital advertising planned, placed, measured and evaluated, so that people can decide if the program should be tweaked or tossed. According to the report, new technology allows marketers to create "just-in-time" campaigns that adapt to conditions, so creative campaigns will adapt and change based on specific triggers -- such as sales/ERP data, blog chatter/consumer feedback, or other external conditions.

Yes this works for those who are online. But what about people who still are not online all the time, like pharmacists or doctors. I believe that no matter what the business model, the reality here is that consumers are still interacting in a variety of mediums with the exception of email spam now which typically goes in the trash. Direct mail for example can still work in conjunction with postcard campaigns that drive folks to a website where they can accept a special offer by filling out a survey, and instigate a lead gen call from a sales rep. This works really well for some businesses.

Our new client, Peternity.com, for example, is a small business that currently relies on online lead generation, based on people who are searching for pet urns, pet memorial markers or information about pet burials. A targeted direct mail postcard campaign to vets, or pet stores, could lead to new business tie-ins and direct customer referrals.

The Value of SEO and Social Media Marketing

The transition that is going on in the marketing communicaitons industry is interesting. There are alot of people who know that their websites need Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and many actually believe that their website designers have already done this for them. We see all too often that web masters use duplicate title tags. For example, each page may have the same name - the name of the company. This does not work because Google sees it as you spaming yourself. Here are some basics below.

Each page should have its own unique title tag with keywords (preferably chosen from a keyword Analysis) done by an SEO pro like MarCom's Mike Keesling. If possible, each page should have its own unique description tag as well. Note: in some content management systems this is impossible to achieve as they assign descriptions on a global basis only. In this case, it is better to eliminate the description tag entirely, rather than use one phrase repeatedly for every page.

This brings me to content building and social media marketing. The purpose of building content on your web pages is so that you will have more opportunities for keyword placement. Flash sites cannot be optimized. And sparcely designed web pages with little content offer no SEO advantage either. At least have other content (clickable) on back end pages. Three deep is about as far as the search engines will go.

Content building is part of social media marketing. I write articles for clients that feature their keywords and link back to specific web pages on their sites with those key words. This way Google sees that there's activity going to their website, and begins ranking their site better. The goal of course, is to get the client ranked on page one of Google.

BloggerWorld Conference

This week from Wednesday - Friday, Nov. 7 - 9 the first "BlogWorld & New Media Expo" will be taking place in Las Vegas. (Go to www.blogworld expo.com.) The promoters promise it to be an exciting forum for members of both the new and traditional media. It's open to any blogger, vlogger, podcaster, Internet radio broadcaster, or producer of any other form of new media content. I wonder if their press room is open then to ALL bloggers, or just traditional media.

I am happy to see that the traditional "media stunt" is sill part of this celebration. The conference will play host to the first annual BlogWorld & New Media Expo's "World's Largest Pajama Party." That should serve up some interesting podcasts and photos.

I also wonder if the presenters (there are seven keynote speakers) will be answering some of the questions that we are confronting these days with clients as everyone transitions into the blogosphere. One keynote is with Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and founder of HD.net, plus a recent contestant on ABC-TV's Dancing with the Stars. He is the author of the popular "Blog Maverick" blog.

For example one of my questions came about when writing a press kit for one new project. It has come to my attention that many websites are no longer featuring press kits for the media. On eBay, for example, I could not find a traditional press kit to download. As this is a traditional media tactic, is it still important to make press kits available that are journalistically written in AP Style for the media to specifically just "lift" and use the content therein? I think so -- although I no longer believe a had printed folder with paper inside is a good idea. environmentally speaking it's a waste. So a CD/DVD version would be better for handing out at trade shows. Our client Acutrack, Inc. handles that for marketers in its On Demand Production product.

I have numerous blog posts out there to query and find out the answer to this question BTW, and I will post the answers in a future blog post.

I know that from now on many media within the blogosphere, won't pay any attention to anything unless it comes in RSS format. In fact, here is the Shift Communications new media format RSS enabled press release.

Happy blogging.

Big Influencers in Social Media Marketing and PR

I am talking about Paul Gillin's new book about blogging "The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media." If you come out of technology like I do, you probably already know Paul. He was editor-in-chief of Computerworld, then started TechTarget. I met him along the way when I worked for several anti-virus companies. But as the book tells us on the cover, "This is essential reading for anyone who missed the blogging train when it left the station." I was on the train, but like many PR professionals, was preoccupied looking out the window watching the landscape speed by while others, like Paul and most all of those mentioned in his book, were conducting.

The problem with recommending this book is that the more people who know all the details about social media marketing, the more competition MarCom Broadband will have. LOL Oh well. I got an earlier start than most, and have been doing search engine optimization and marketing for almost three years now. My first assignment was trying to get rid of negative Internet posts for one client. (Hint: Be careful what you write on the Internet, because it will stick around for awhile.) I am still tripping over some technical issues with blogging. Adding trackbacks, blogrolls, etc. It's easier to recommend to one's clients than to have the time to do it for yourself sometimes. It's that old shoemaker and his kids going barefoot routine. But I'll get there.

We have successfully converted many traditional PR clients to half PR and half social media. Again much of what PR people do best is writing - and its all about content on the web. (See my other blogpost on this topic.) One project in particular that has been a big success is T.S. Wiley, who is an author (Lights Out and Sex Lies and Menopause) and an expert in the controversial topic of hormone replacement therapy, having developed The Wiley Protocol.

Here's one bit of advice that everyone can use. The future is all about change. A new economy is emerging (or for some - has emerged). And if you made it through the tech boom without getting rich, now's your chance again. Study up, be innovative and start blogging. The difference now is that we all must be totally honest, because communicaitons is all about new ways to connect, and share ideas and information in real time.

PS: After finishing the book this morning, I was convinced to start another blog - a special interest blog, which I did, and will divulge it once I have made some posts. (Just a hint, as my friends know, it is about a favorite topic of mine -- real ghosts or "energy" and psychic experiences.)

The Digital News Era Gets Personal: Malibu Fire Story

This week there was allot of tension, due to the fires in California. It amazes me, I could not reach my friend Mark, who lives in Malibu during the fires, until he finally replied to an email, and then called me today to let me know that he's OK. He also mentioned that he was interviewed by NPR radio, in a story entitled, NPR : Malibu Man Refuses California Wildfire Evacuation.

So he actually got an online interview story that had I simply searched for his name online, I would have been able to see that he was OK, much earlier. He was stuck in Malibu with no electricity, no telephones, and no gas, for several days.

Over and out.

Navigating the Online World Via Search Engine Marketing

According to search engine marketing firm iProspect’s Search Marketer Measurement and Performance Study, eighty eight percent of search marketers measure the ROI of their campaigns, 9 percent more than in 2005. The company said that they commissioned the study to get a better understanding of search marketer behavior regarding results measurement and personal-performance evaluations. The study was fielded in March of 2007 by Jupiter Research.

It seems like most of our MarCom Broadband clients require much more than just public relations or search engine marketing these days. In order to navigate the online world, smaller businesses, and emerging technology clients like Acutrack, Inc. need marketers like us to help them with an entire host of other marketing dilemmas.

Hopefully, since 2005, the industry is doing a better job educating and providing resources for search marketers, and that’s why MarCom’s business model is ever changing. Just today we proposed that an affiliate marketing campaign might be of interest for Acutrack’s On Demand Production model, which gives their customers the ability to produce and ship custom packaged CDs or DVDs one at a time. On Demand targets recording artists and filmmakers, photo-service providers, software companies, marketing and PR professionals, authors, and self help businesses.

Keyword analysis and implementation and public relations tactics are only a part of what we do today as online marketers. Some people need to know how to build or rebuild a website. We get questions all the time about affiliate marketing, email marketing, and the value, or not, of direct mail. And though many small businesses can’t afford traditional print advertising, there are lots of questions about online advertising and banner ads.

Many smaller businesses are still wrapped up in the web challenges on the Web, fighting with organizational or technical challenges keeping them from measuring return on investment (ROI). And with this said, they should have an eye towards the future when it comes to putting these practices in place.

For those companies that we represent who are a bit more sophisticated, if the number of search marketers that now measure the ROI of their campaigns has risen to 88 percent, it would seem that these same marketers are motivated to understand the financial gains from their efforts.

Of course, in order to measure online results, there’s a need for web tracking and analytics tools, and professionals like us with services that support clients so that we can all evaluate the success of their efforts. Catch our newsletter for some tips in that area.

MarCom’s website has a Cool Tools section you might want to take a look at. In addition, back issues of this blog share data about social media marketing and how that can drive traffic to websites and help sell products and services.

New Social Media Marketing Guidelines

I find it of interest to keep up with others in our marketplace. As a public relations (PR) professional I see so many changes taking place that just as soon as something new and interesting is published, it's already old news.

But with that said, I bought a new book called The New Influencers, A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media, by Paul Gillin because the book has been praised by The Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News and the BBC. Once I read it I can report back...

However, here's something you might want to check out. Over the last two months I have been conducting an initial social media campaign for our client Acutrack, Inc. I've been posting weekly article submissions and blog items, several times a week, and we got a hit today about their On Demand DVD Production service on another blog site, who picked up one of my PR Web releases. BTW if you are not using PRWeb (www.prweb.com) you should be, in addition to PR Newswire, for press release distribution. I use the $360 version, and it goes out to all the RSS feeds, and to select media outlets. PRWeb, a leader in online news and press release distribution, has been used by more than 40,000 organizations of all sizes to increase the visibility of their news, improve their search engine rankings and drive traffic to their Web site.

Also here are some tips on social networks:
Digg (http://www.digg.com) -- a technical social network, that focuses its resources on technical topics.
Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) -- is a social network that focuses on a consumer topics, and is often easier for average users. Here are a few of the other hot social media networks:
StumbleUpon - http://www.stumbleupon.com
Reddit - http://www.reddit.com
Furl - http://www.furl.com

Happy networking!

Content. Content. Content. The Future of Online Marketing

It’s growing more and more important for companies to produce content for the Internet. We have one emerging technology client who recently asked how we can product 500 pages of content for their website so they can compete with their competition. Easy. Start writing. BUT there are some tips that you need to be aware of first.

The first and foremost challenge, and there’s a reason that I am saying this, is that you MUST know your customer. Content marketing is all about producing content that addresses the concerns of your customer. Your Internet content can and should include web pages, traditional press releases, PRWeb releases, articles, white papers, blogs, forum posts, and podcasts. Content marketing is relevant information delivered by a company to a targeted audience with the goal of changing behaviors. The Internet offers plenty of opportunities for placing relevant content. But it MUST be optimized properly first, or Google can't rank it for when a customer searches for what they want to know using key words and phrases.

First you need to dedicate one person or group to the editorial content you create. Whether this is an internal communications specialist or a contracted team of social media marketing and SEO experts like MarCom Broadband, you must create great content for customers and prospects – and you need to have someone who knows how to optimize the content with your keywords perform their magic.

Next, invest in a good design team. Your customers deserve to enjoy looking at your website and reading your material, so make sure to use designers who have a good understanding of user behavior and preferences.

Use microsites – you don’t need all of this content on your main domain. Vertical portals or microsites are a great way to add content to a site. But for Google and the search engines to be able to read these pages, make sure they are meta-tagged properly and that they don’t go any deeper than three clicks. Make each micro page on one topic, and optimize each page with relevant key words.

I always say that I can take one single topic for a client, and write and use content for that topic – six ways to Sunday. Have fun.

The Environment, SEO and the Eco-Friendly Internet

It seems like lately we have been getting business opportunities in the area of eco-friendly, or environmental issues, several of which I can talk about now, and two more that are not yet announced.

Oil and the environment are on everyone's minds these days. With gas prices in LA closer to $3.00 this week, it's no wonder. My friend Patrick dropped by yesterday and he showed me a website called http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ - a rather dismal view of what's happening with oil.

As social media marketers -- we now have an opportunity to use the Internet to help peoople understand the seriousness of the problem, to help raise awareness and begin to mitigate the problem before say the year 2050, when there may be close to nine billion people on earth.

Author and futurist James Canton, Ph.D., already predicted that the "Clean Tech" market will emerge, which happened, and now we are in an era where people are promoting social responsibility and profit. In his recent book The Extreme Future (Dutton, 2006) he is asking, "What does it mean to global growth and productivity if we do not discover new energy sources as oil supplies are dwindling?"

One of my colleagues, Riggs Eckelberry, has been working on a new project known as OriginOil - a very interesting concept. Think ocean, algae, and oil. Oil and water never seem to mix well. But in this case, Origin Oil is breakthrough technology that will transform algae, the most promising source of renewable oil, into a true competitor to petroleum.

Another client, T.S. Wiley, author of "Lights Out," and developer of The Wiley Protocol, who is using biodegradable eco-friendly plastic in her product targeted to the women who opt in to bio identical hormone replacement therapy.

I did a search for the most influencial bloggers using the key word environment, and as of today, Technorati's directory delivered 11,225 blog posts about environment; 4933 blogs about the environment; 2002 blogs using the key word environmental; 323 blogs about eco-friendly; 29 using the key word oil crisis; and 2,137 blogs about global warming.

Key words like these are beginning to land on web pages everywhere, making it essential for marketers to get on board and begin to market their products and services in this arena with the right search engine optimization and social media techniques, just to stay ahead of the fray.

In the next few days, MarCom Broadband will be featuring more about its most recent eco clients in our newsletter, which can be accessed at www.marcombroadband.com.

Showstoppers Webinar on Social Media, Blogging and Podcasting

Yesterday's ShowStoppers Webinar, "How to Engage Bloggers & Podcasters to Boost Buzz and Generate Coverage" was a success with over 159 signed up, and more than 90 attendees. Maybe some folks got stuck in traffic as it started at 11AM EST, but 8AM on the West coast. Our host was a long time colleague, Steve Leon, cofounder, partner and producer of the fabulous ShowStoppers press events.

There are always lessons learned when woking with new technologies. This was one of my first webinars. I really enjoyed the process, and look forward to even better future sessions. We used GoToMeeting (http://www.citrixonline.com/) and had several dress rehearsals. This was key, because the first time, I learned that the entire webinar needed to be very conversational. We had a PowerPoint as a guideline for the participants, but the goal became not to read from it. This gave us plenty of time in advance to come up with questions for Steve our host, and to set up the function for participants to email in questions. Lena West, one of the speakers, was a great guide as she has set up many shadowblogs and crisis PR blogs for major clients.

Here's another tip ... It's really important to silence all of your telephones prior to doing a webinar. I use Vonage, so I went online and disconnected the call waiting function, and voicemails. I put a do not disturb sign on my door, and closed all windows. Don't use a mobile telephone, or the speaker function on your direct land line. This is important in our case, as the webinar was recorded, thanks Lena West, who is a columnist and blogger for Entrepreneur Magazine and an Infoworld blogger. She is also CEO of XynoMedia, a New York-based social media strategy firm, serving high-growth companies and PR firms.

Let's go back to the basics here and review the inportance of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing. SEO is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. A site’s ranking in a search is essential for directing more traffic to the site. SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.

Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives. It requires:
•Participation
•Openness, transparency and disclosure
•Conversation
•Community Driven
•Facilitation (facilitating conversations that are already happening online)

That said, our webinar focused on just a couple of the tools that are used in social media marketing -- blogging and podcasting. Lena had some great tips for PR professionals insofar as pitching bloggers -- lessons I too have learned in a recent blog and podcast tour for a diet book. KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. One paragraph, links to the press releases, or website info. Lena made the point, fiercely... if she wants more info, and is interested in covering your pitch, she will contact you. Period. Do not send attachments, long press releases, or long anything, for that matter. Bloggers and podcasters are really busy. And as my associate Mike Keesling said, who used to work at a news station in Hawaii, he got hundreds of pitches per day and only had time to read the headline (subject in email) and a couple of concise sentenses. So if you cannot consolidate your email pitches into a couiple of sentences, then you are hosed.

If you want to read more tips, I strongly suggest that you download Lena's little eBook of invaluable info on pitching bloggers and podcasters without ticking them off. Go to
http://www.xynoMedia.com/showstoppers to download your copy of The Blogosphere Cluebook: How PR Agents & Publicists Can Effectively Engage Blogosphere Influencers Instead of Ticking Them Off by Lena West.

Enjoy.

Sources:
PowerPoint: http://www.showstoppers.com/webinar/bloggersandpodcasters.ppt
The Webinar: http://www.showstoppers.com/webinar/bandp.mp3

The Value of Podcasts

More and more, we are seeing opportunities for online radio, otherwise known as podcasts. Just this evening, my client - author T.S. Wiley - did a podcast on Dr. Fitness and The Fat Guy -- a popular online radio show about fitness and weight loss.

Another client, Acutrack, Inc. based in Livermore, CA, has been doing podcasts successfully for quite awhile. The interesting thing is that in electronic media such as radio or TV, and now podcasts, we hear from people who talk in a comfortable first person one-to-one manner. The podcast is available 24/7 on the Internet, and when someone searches via key words on a specific topic, they will locate podcasts, and can listen and or watch at their own will.

Here are some interesting facts:

• The online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives.
• More than 70% of Americans ages 15-34 actively use online social networks – e.g. Wikipedia, My Space, You Tube, Flickr, Second Life, MiniClip, Digg, Facebook, Match, etc.
• 58% Americans aged 50-64 – fastest growth in the Internet Source: TRU, TNS, Marketing Evolution.

Podcasts are simply part of the new world of public relations know as Social Media Marketing, which requires participation, openness, transparency and disclosure, conversation, community, and facilitation (facilitating conversations that are already happening online). These are non-commercial messages (unless there is a compelling reason for you to look at it, read it, listen to it, watch it, like it, interact with it, and ultimately buy it!) This is what bloggers and podcasters excel at…

To learn more, please join us for a Showstoppers® sponsored Webinar on Sept. 18th entitled, "How to Engage Bloggers & Podcasters to Boost Buzz and Generate Coverage." Featured speakers will include me, Kristin Gabriel, and Lena L. West, columnist and blogger for Entrepreneur Magazine and an Infoworld blogger.

Go to http://www.xynoMedia.com/showstoppers to download your copy of 21+ Ways to Get a Blogosphere Clue: How PR Agents & Publicists Can Effectively Engage Blogosphere Influencers Instead of Ticking Them Off.

To sign up for the Showstoppers Webinar:
Time: 11 a.m. to noon ET (8-9 a.m. PT)
Place: Your telephone and web browser
Cost: Free
To register: Click here, https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/677428751

The Art of Article Submissions

I have been doing article submissions for a couple of years now. It all started with writing them for an antivirus company who was looking to push some negative stuff that showed up in Google searches down and off of the first and second pages of searches in MSN, Yahoo or Google. I used our key words, wrote articles, and it worked.

Next I started writing articles for all of our MarCom Broadband clients. I always say that one good topic or article can be written "six ways to Sunday" when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing tactics. Here's an example of that:
1) Press release on PR Newswire - a traditional news release.
2) PR Web optimized press release on PR Web.
3) Articles on articles submission sites like http://www.articlesbase.com/
4) Forum posts in industry forums and chat rooms.
5) Social media site postings on sites like Wikipedia, My Space, etc.
6) Blog content - you really need a blog to regurgitate content.

Plus you have your website content.

You do need to be careful about how commerical articles are in the submission services. Most of them will not take promotional content. But you can add your company's name and website address in the resource box. You just need to be clever about how you talk about a company or client by name. I often mention several comapnies, or provide a quote.

Last, none of these SEO tactics would be of any value without adding your key words. The first thing we do is a key word analysis for clients. Then we all use these key words in every single thing we write up.

Results are fantastic. You usually see results for certain key words within a month or two. And again, it's all about content content content on the web. The more of it you have, the better your rankings in Google.